


Brush and Shield

by peoriapeoria



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Art, Gen, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five pieces of art Tony reacts to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brush and Shield

The canvas is huge. The painting is, it's Day-Glo, it is the screamingest thing Tony has seen, orange and magenta, solar flare and fuchsia, with a barely present background that's cobalt at best and greenblack in places.

Tony thinks it's an abstract until one day he glances at it just right. Steve has painted the most honest battlescene, dead dead dying dead strewn like discarded broken dishes. The unnatural color hides the careful modeling. Each corpse is both individual and number. One scene superimposed upon another and another.

\------

The painting is cobalt and turquoise, coffee table book small. Tony thinks it's small, it's smaller than the portraits he's seen too many of, of people no one cares about. Hidden in the intricate patterns he recognizes his Aunt Peggy younger, and Steve's mother (who he knows only by her son's hand; there are other women, some probably nuns, others USO dancers.

Strong, serene.

\------------

Tony likes the little landscape all done in grey. There are mountains, and a tiny railroad winding through them. He thinks he owns a Chinese scroll that's similar.

\-----------

"Really?" Tony is a little shocked to see Steve with a stencil and a can of spray paint. So, he's inside and working on a canvas. "What is that made out of?"

"Signage stock."

It's like he's in battle, no wasted motion, everything planned enough he can embrace the spontaneous. Tony is enthralled. Recordings aren't perfect, and he's busy when they're assembled.

\-------------

They are in the group living room. Steve is looking abashed in a way it shouldn't even be possible for a grown man.

"What's up, Cap?"

The animated Captain America asked Bugs about his life after the war. The Avengers were watching a set of public service announcements about art. Two were about art in education.

"Did you just draw yourself?"

"Why wouldn't I?" It sounded more like Bugs than Steve normally did. "Oops."

"Are there bloopers?"

There were. Audio mostly, including a stretch where Bugs Bunny and Captain America swapped accents back and forth. There was at the end an uninked Bugs showering confetti over a more realistically rendered Captain America.

**Author's Note:**

> The first painting is in tribute to a piece I saw inspired by Vietnam. The last work is pure pastiche.


End file.
